Fantastic weather today. I did my best to not sleep in too much. I think I got out at the right time. It was in the 50's, winds from the North West, slightly turbulent. I wore arms, knees, thick base layer, head cap, and newspaper in the jersey. Turned out to be the perfect attire. I left my jacket behind and was a good call. The legs felt pretty good to start. I stashed bottled water and powder mix in the mail locker. Then, I made it to the summit of the Keene descent in good average time. I cruised the downhill and put in two digs on the risers. I made it to the base in good average time. After making it there, I checked my GPS because the announcements weren't working the way they should. Then I headed back. The climb went quick. The body was responding well. Thanks to the cool weather and slight tailwind. As I was climbing, a train was on its way up. The wheels were screeching utterly fowl. I could hardly hear myself breath. That went on for about 10 minutes of the ascent, maybe more. After making it to the Lower Loop, the noise was much less. The landmarks went quick. I was doing in and out of the saddle efforts to keep the momentum going and the muscles as fresh as possible. I had the MP3 speaker on low volume, so the announcements were inaudible. I kept my momentum going over the top while reaching near maximum. After cresting the summit, I took a few moments to recover on the bike. I headed back to the mail locker. I decided to mix a powder drink and then I headed to OTR. OTR felt good. Although, my left inner hip was exhibiting a bit of soreness. A pinched nerve kind of soreness. So, I was doing as best I could to mitigate the soreness. Mostly in and out of the saddle efforts while adjusting my cadence. And, a bit of stretching. The soreness did not escalate. I think it had something to do with the knee warmers pinching in the wrong place. After reaching the summit of OTR, I stopped to feed. I fed a Clif Bar with water. From there, it was back home. The descent was fun and games, very relaxing and enjoyable. I pushed over Mariposa and then back to the top of the Weston dig where I shut it down.

Concentration was good. I was in the zone most of the time. I had stuff to think about and that helped. Balance and form was good. Ailments were minimal, most notably, the left inner hip issue. As mentioned, it didn't escalate, but hindered ever so slightly since I had to reduce my effort to mitigate. Also, the usual hand soreness on the out of the saddle digs. Nutrition was good. I had a bowl of oatmeal, half a banana and some grapes for breakfast. When I got up from my nap, I had the other half of the banana and more grapes. I fed a Clif Bar with water during the last 15 minutes of the ride. I drank one and a half of my powder drink and a bottles worth of water. Gear worked flawlessly. The bike is now beautifully quiet. Other notes, no cyclists today. There were some people at the Loop Monument when I was on my way back.